In search of the perfect lesson...

Over the years I have had a number of very capable students who get very annoyed with themselves during individual lessons. It's quite a common thing and in some ways the human brain is always wired up to dwell on it's perceived errors. As a coach I quite often hear fencers go "Grrrr" when they get something wrong once out of ten but I never had a student who went "Yay!" nine times out of ten when they got things right. Strange....
In some ways it's better to treat those little mistakes as gifts not penalties. If you get something wrong you have a great opportunity to figure it out and to get it right next time. Whilst I obviously prefer students who want to get it right (I don't think I've ever had one who wanted to get it wrong) I don't want my students to spend their time frustrated and annoyed with themselves by concentrating on their perceived shortcomings as this doesn't help anything and will not lead to development. We need to acknowledge our errors, put them behind us and move on. No one will ever have the perfect lesson so stop trying. Besides, as a coach it's my job to make it difficult in order to help learning! If it gets too easy I'm losing my touch!
So next time you think you've made a mistake in a lesson, acknowledge it and move on. We'll get it right eventually. Then we'll try something harder......